A Turner masterpiece became the most expensive British painting sold at auction today when it was bought for $35,856,000 (£20.5 million) at Christie’s in New York.

Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio, a view of the Grand Canal in Venice from the island of Giudecca in the Venetian lagoon, had not been in seen in public for more than 30 years when it was put on display at Christie’s in London last year.

Expected to fetch around £11 million, the painting easily surpassed the previous record sum paid for a British work: the $21,153,800 (£12m) that purchased John Constable’s The Lock in 1990. The highest price paid for a Turner before today was £7.3 million for the late, experimental work, Seascape, Folkestone, sold in 1984

The seller of the painting was the St Francis of Assisi Foundation, a New York-based charity which was given the work by a European collector in the 1990s. It was bought by a private collector over the telephone after a wobble at $18m mark gave way to swift bidding.

Described as the finest old master to be sold at Christie’s in New York since 1989 and a perfect example of J.M.W Turner’s enduring fascination with Venice, the work was one of three oil paintings made for the Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition of 1841.

Posted: 04|6|06 at 8:18 pm. Filed under: Auction News.